Tehama County woman killed by husband may have been pregnant

DAIRYVILLE &GT;&GT; The Facebook page of a woman killed by her husband Sunday in Dairyville indicates she was pregnant with a seventh child.

Tehama County deputies say said Justin Sides, 34, called 9-1-1 a little after 4 a.m. saying he had shot his wife, Jenilee, 31, and he was going to shoot himself. Sides also told dispatchers he had children in the Electric Avenue house, deputies said.

When they got there, deputies found Jenilee Sides outside with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. They moved her to safety to wait for medics, but she died not long after, deputies said.

Jenilee Sides posted an ultrasound picture on her Facebook page Aug. 6, and Justin Sides commented on the picture that the baby was due in January. Tehama County Sheriff's Lt. Yvette Borden said she can't confirm that Sides was pregnant until an autopsy is conducted, but deputies are aware of the Facebook post. An autopsy hasn't been scheduled yet, Borden said.

Meanwhile, deputies safely removed the other six children, from 2 to 15 years old, from the home, and later found Justin Sides in a field north of dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputies said the children did not witness the killing, though they were in the home when it happened. Borden said all but one were Justin Sides' biological children, but the other he had raised since birth. All of them are now in protective custody, she added.

Borden said the incident appears to have been spurred by an argument between the Sides. She said Jenilee Sides had a domestic violence restraining order against her husband in the past, though it was not currently active.

Despite their unstable relationship, Jenilee Sides posted kind words about her husband on Facebook as recently as last week.

"It feels great to have a husband that enjoys providing and I feel awesome to be able to hold down the fort while he's away ... we have some lucky kiddos!!!" she wrote on Aug. 7.

But Jeanne Spurr, executive director of Tehama County domestic violence resource Alternatives to Violence, said pregnancy is one of the most dangerous times for those being abused.

"They (the abusers) don't like the idea that the focus is no longer on the abuser, because in an abusive relationship, the focus is always on the abuser, what are they going to do next, how can I keep them from escalating," she said. "Now all of the sudden it's on this unborn child ... That does not make a controlling person happy."

That phenomenon aligns with recent statistics from women staying at Alternatives to Violence's shelter, only for those most imminently in danger from their partner. Spurr said 44 percent of women staying there in the past year reported being abused during a pregnancy, though only 16 percent of the agency's overall clientele reported the same.

"We see a lot of pregnant women in our shelter due to that," she said. "Your home becomes a torturous prison."

Tehama County already has a disturbingly high domestic violence rate, Spurr said, with 12.3 domestic violence calls per 1,000 adults — about twice the state's average, putting it at sixth in California for intimate partner violence.

Spurr said there are plenty of resources for domestic violence victims in Tehama County, including a 24-hour crisis line, shelter, counseling, and even anger-management therapy for their abusers.

"We have a very broad spectrum of services," she said.

To contact the 24-hour crisis line, call 528-0226 or 1-800-324-6473. Alternatives to Violence also has a drop-in center on Walnut Street in Red Bluff open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.